MORE ABOUT GAME-BIRDS. 87 



"When first I knew the blackcock's haunts, they 

 were unknown lands to the general public, and very 

 rarely visited even by those who were acquainted 

 with them. The black-game dwelt in a land of 

 hills and valleys covered with trees — a land of fir 

 and heather, with morass and bog at the bottom 

 — a land where, from the hills above to the hollows 

 below, springs of the purest water were continually 

 trickling under the moorland mosses into the trout- 

 streams that ran down the moors. 



There were countless very beautiful cushions of 

 the richest greens, sulphur-yellows, and pale creamy 

 pinks. And between these moss cushions rose great 

 clumps of rushes here and there. Thick cover ran 

 to the very edge of the mosses, which rose above 

 "quakes" far too shaky to travel over. 



Here the ferns grew breast-high. No one ever 

 cut them for litter as " farn - brake " when they 

 withered. The bent and broken stems, falling and 

 crossing in all directions, formed safe cover for the 

 black-game. The birds were in a forest sanctuary, 

 and they knew it. 



The nest of the black-grouse and the grey hen 

 is made on the ground in cover, or rather under 



